Park Lane Group, Purcell Room

Without the Park Lane Group, Britain’s musical scene would be infinitely poorer, yet its birth half a century ago was accidental.

Three music students went to see the elderly accountant running a Park Lane house as an occasional venue for fashion shows, and persuaded him to let them use it rent-free for concerts. It became an instant magnet for young artists needing a showcase: the scheme’s long list of alumni now includes Harrison Birtwistle, John Ogdon, Tom Ades, Sir Tom Allen, and Steven Isserlis.

Having got established, the Park Laners made a strategic decision to present their concerts in a concentrated blitz in the Purcell Room in early January, at a time when most other venues were dark, and when critics were therefore looking for things to write about. Hence my presence at the first night of this year’s blitz, when, in the space of three and a half hours, a cavalcade of front-rank musicians presented a series of rarities and premieres.

First up were eight cellists going by the name of Cellophony, offering premieres by Adam Gorb and Richard Birchall (who was also one of their number). Gorb’s ‘Into the light’ followed its title quite literally, beginning with angry growls from the depths and ending in a blaze of exaltation, with much Bartokian material in between. Birchall’s ‘Mirrors’ was a dazzling exploration of the effects this instrumental combination can produce, but by also playing two classics in this unusual genre, Cellophony showed how high the bar had already been set. Boulez’s ‘Messagesquisse’ turned the group into an orchestra with alternating soloists. Berio’s ‘Korot’ was a breathtaking essay in whispered sound and pregnant silence; with its diamond-sharp contours immaculately sculpted, it seemed to imply the presence of a larger work hovering unseen in the ether above.

Then, with her pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam, soprano Rhona McKail gave us songs by Lord Berners, Peter Dickinson, Charlotte Bray, and Joe Cutler, but it was the last-named composer who took the palm with his exquisite song-sequence ‘In Praise of Dreams’. Meanwhile the Catalan pianist Nestor Bayona Pifarre deployed explosive virtuosity in pieces by Gorb, Simon Holt, and Cristobal Halffter, and in a thrillingly atmospheric rumination on Gaudi’s Barcelona by the 23-year old composer Jamie Pui-Ling Man. Quite an evening.